Legal Village

As readers of Legal Week will know, one aspect of solicitors’ careers which interests me is what they do after they leave practice. I do not believe that solicitors are well enough represented in business, government or regulation and I am trying to do something about it. Currently this involves visiting a number of the larger firms to talk through the issues with their senior or managing partners.
 

The problem is that partners in City firms turned away from involvement in outside interests some time ago. It was not always so. In the 60s a number of partners in the big City firms were directors of important companies. But times changed and the competition got stiffer. For good reason we decided that the possibility of conflict and the need for total commitment to the firm meant that we all became full time lawyers. In many ways that was a good decision for the profession, but it has had its downside.
 

When we leave practice, and we do so at quite an early age, we find that we have no other business or public service activity to fall back on. Many of us become consultants but that doesn’t always work. More solicitors in positions of responsibility would be good for everyone.  However, it is easy to state the problem but difficult to solve it. Firms think, and who can blame them, that partners should be 100 per cent committed to the business. When the senior partner suggests that they might think of a few outside interests most partners think that their days are numbered and they might as well retire into the library with the revolver and shoot themselves.
 

I have two suggestions to make. First that partners in their fifties should be encouraged to take up outside interests which do not interfere with their fee-earning. It is quite possible to be the governor of a school, or a trustee of a charity without affecting your practice. I think partners could go further and join mini quangos such as NHS boards. These experiences will teach them a lot. Then, when the time comes to think about retirement seriously I believe that firms should consider training and other help. Other business organisations do – as do the services.
 

Anyway, as I say, we don’t tell people what to do and I am enjoying the visits. Visiting the firms one after another is eye opening. They all have airy modern offices suitable for the major international businesses they have become and it hard to believe that when I started in the law Ashursts, for example, still had gas fires in their offices. I particularly enjoyed the notice on the hot-air dryer in Pinsent Masons’ client loo. – ‘Do not activate with wet hands’

Bill Knight